Many foreign nationals are trapped amid rising conflicts
Civilian helicopters have evacuated US citizens from the South Sudanese city of Bor, which has seen small arms and heavy machine gun fire in recent days, but 3,000 citizens from countries including Canada, Britain and Kenya remain trapped there, a top UN official said on Monday.
Toby Lanzer, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator, said Australians, Ugandans and Ethiopians are also among 15,000 people seeking protection at a UN base in Bor, a city that could see increasing violence in the coming days.
The number of internal refugees has likely surpassed 100,000, said Lanzer, who is seeking urgent financial assistance from the international community.
Bor is the city where rebel forces fired on three US military aircraft on Saturday, forcing the Ospreys — advanced helicopter-airplane hybrids — to abort their evacuation mission. On Sunday the US evacuated Americans by civilian US and UN helicopters.
The US over the past week has evacuated 380 Americans and 300 others from South Sudan.
“The US government is doing everything possible to ensure the safety and security of United States citizens in South Sudan,” said a statement by Jen Psaki, the State Department’s spokeswoman.
She said the United States and the United Nations had taken steps to ensure fighting factions were aware that the evacuation flights were on a humanitarian mission.
The US — a key backer of South Sudan’s 2011 independence — is increasing diplomatic pressure on that country.
Analysts do not expect Washington to launch a massive military campaign, despite President Barack Obama’s decision to send nearly 100 troops to the country this week to help protect
Now the US is looking at the situation, and it is driven by this desire not to let all the hard work get away.” RICHARD DOWNIE AFRICA ASSISTANT DIRECTOR AT THE CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
US citizens, personnel and property.
The US over the weekend deployed about 46 troops to help evacuate American citizens. That was in addition to 45 troops sent to the capital, Juba, last week to protect the US embassy.
Obama has warned South Sudan over the week-old conflict, saying the country was on the “precipice” of civil war and that any military coup would trigger an end to diplomatic and economic support from Washington and its allies.
Secretary of State John Kerry also told President Salva Kiir over the weekend that the violence endangers the independence of the world’s youngest nation, born in July 2011 after a five-decade struggle for independence from Sudan.
Washington has had a longstanding interest in South Sudan and supported the southern rebels in their battle for independence.
Post-independence, the US became Juba’s biggest source of political and economic aid as the country took its first steps, recalled Richard Downie, Africa assistant director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Now the US is looking at the situation, and it is driven by this desire not to let all the hard work get away,” the analyst said, noting that Washington’s engagement in South Sudan has been “driven by humanitarian concerns”.